• Public speaking exercises that require students to deliver an oral report or recorded video that presents their ideas for solving the problem presented in the roleplay or case study • Assessment tools in lieu of a multiplechoice quiz/test Since the evaluation form for each role-play and case study assesses the performance indicators, you are assessing students’ performance according to the National Curriculum Standards, which are industry validated and aligned with career clusters.
COMPETITIVE EVENTS DECA’s Competitive Events Program is an incredible tool for your curriculum. As an integral part of the classroom curriculum, DECA’s industry-validated competitive events are aligned with National Curriculum Standards in the career clusters of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism, as well as personal financial literacy and entrepreneurship. DECA’s competitive events provide authentic learning situations related to current business practices and that are designed to evaluate members’ knowledge and skills through an interactive component with an industry professional serving as a judge. DECA’s competitive events support members’ development of 21 st Century Skills, such as creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration. As a result, DECA’s competitive events directly contribute to every member being college and career ready when they graduate from high school. ■ deca.org/competition
USING DECA’S COMPETITIVE EVENTS IN THE CLASSROOM With its connection to National Curriculum Standards, DECA’s Competitive Events Program is designed to be integrated into classroom instruction to help members apply learning and connect to business. ROLE-PLAY EVENTS As teaching tools, DECA’s role-plays and case studies provide relevant, meaningful problems for members to solve, provide a standards-based evaluation, increase the rigor of instruction, result in evidence of learning and expose members to DECA—all as part of classroom instruction. Each role-play and case study supports a specific career cluster and primary instructional area that is identified at the top of the first page of the event. 124 | THIS IS HOW WE DO DECA
As you teach different instructional areas during the year, use corresponding roleplays and case studies as learning tools. Although the traditional competitive event setting requires interaction with judges, many advisors have used role-plays and case studies as: • Warm-up activities at the beginning of classes • Writing exercises that require students to write their ideas for solving the problem presented in the role-play or case study
WRITTEN AND PREPARED EVENTS DECA’s written and prepared events increase relevance of learning by providing practical experiences for members, and they provide rigor by requiring high-level critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through the written entry and presentation, members also develop both academic skills and 21 st Century Skills. Many DECA advisors use written and prepared events to facilitate learning through a written classroom project that can then become a DECA written entry. For example, advisors have used the Business Operations Research Events as a major project in an advanced business or marketing class or the Integrated Marketing Campaign when teaching marketing communications. Here are some suggestions for integrating DECA’s prepared events into classroom instruction: • Introduce the project early in the semester and make the final product due at the end of the semester. Match the event’s objectives with course competencies (performance indicators) and the appropriate section of the written entry. • Design the development of the written entry into micro-learning activities, with timelines, that align with daily lessons, rather than just giving members a set of competitive event guidelines. Together, these assignments can then be developed into the written entry. • Provide students with feedback at each critical point or section during the project by developing more specific grading rubrics corresponding to each section of the project. This feedback will help students improve their project as they move forward and prepare the final written entry.